It may seem weird to you that I am doing a movie like this. What can I say? This movie was always on when I was a kid. This is largely because my one of my sisters was unreasonably obsessed with this movie. Dirty Dancing as you all know stars Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze. This exercise in dance-sploitation is probably one of the most popular films for women ever thanks to the overall sexiness of Patrick Swayze. Who could blame them? I'd do the guy, but I used to f#$k guys like him in prison.
So the movie is about Baby and her family's trip to a family resort called Kellerman's and how they have a crazy adventure there, discovering that Baby is no longer a baby anymore, and that nobody puts her in a corner. Baby becomes enamored with the dirty world the entertainment crew lives in and... Holy Hell that is Wayne Knight.
Not long into the film, we discover that Johnny Castle's (Patrick Swayze) friend Penny is pregnant. She is one of the main dancers and her friends decide to pay for her back alley abortion. That is pretty heavy stuff for a movie like this. Until this point it was all fun and games, but suddenly this movie becomes awesome. While the abortion story arc is going on, the movie is great. People think I am telling a joke when it comes to my love of this short stint in cinematic gold. I assure you I am serious when I say that the movie suddenly becomes a good movie for this brief period. The only time they can get the abortion done is Thursday night when some dance competition is going on that they can't miss because they would lose their salary at Kellerman's or something. So Baby steps in and gets taught by hunky Johnny Castle. Naturally once she gets into the swing of things, Baby does great.
Master of the air guitar.
Sadly the "fun" ends when the back alley abortion goes awry and Penny is sick. Baby runs to her daddy and luckily he is a doctor. After fixing Penny up, Baby's dad scolds her and forbids her to hang out with those bad dudes. Oh boy, if he ever finds out about Johnny Castle's seedy past as a bouncer, Kellerman's is going to explode. So like any young girl who was just told she couldn't do something, she immediately ignores her father's advice and bangs Johnny. This is when the movie starts to suck again and they finally prove that love cannot be stopped, and nobody puts Baby in the corner. The best part about the ending is just how open they leave it. I like to think that Johnny and Baby's relationship doesn't continue much longer past the ending credits.
What we learn from this is that you should have sex as soon as possible in life, and never obey what your parents say as long as you aren't too terrible to everyone you meet. We also learn that in 1963 back alley abortions cost $250 and that they work pretty well, but you should seek immediate medical attention by a trained doctor on vacation with likely just as primitive tools.
When it comes down to whether or not I like this movie, the answer is a bit complicated. Sometimes, I've Had the Time of My Life with it. But mostly it just leaves me with a feeling of Overload. In all seriousness, this movie is really stupid. It does however have a lot of Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey dancing sexy.
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